nitemayr has no posse, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
I made this the same day I cut my hair into a mohawk (many moons ago) reposting for my blog.
Do you have any funny hairstyle photos?
#WritingFromIsolationWard
Category: Entertainment
Jesus is Gonna TK You!, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
Reposting this to promote Penny Arcade and my own wallpaper!
Have a good one!
I’ve had some time to consider “The Dark Knight” and to get over the whole “No More Joker like that” feeling that it left me with when it was over; time to consider the whole put some thought into its merits and failings.
Gotham Itself
Foremost in those Merits is the Art/Photography. The whole film feels like it was filmed on Location, instead of a series of sets. Where Movies like “X-Men 3” felt like the scale of the film should have been epic and was instead tabletop sized; a movie about the conflict between two men was so grand in scale and broadly shot with sweeping backdrops. It was masterful; as I stated earlier Gotham was shot as another character in the film without gaudy makeup and CGI flourish. It was a welcome change. The “Batcave” was also exceptional; instead of the visual cacphany of the traditional Batcave we are treated to a spartan and functional HQ that serves as the home of the Batman. Did anyone else notice how BRIGHT the “Batcave” was? It wasn’t until the Lights went off at the Batcave that things really got down to business; which I imagine was the metaphor that ran through the whole movie.
Alfred
Speaking of unvarnished Characters; Alfred gets a back story in this film that precludes some of his own history. He has served the Wayne Family for how long? He used to be a mercenary/soldier in where? Hmmm. It seems that a former soldier might not take to the life of a butler as readily as the former actor. Can we get a nice firm Public School Education and life of service in place for Alfred and just leave it there? Please? Michael Caine was (as ever) a fine character actor; he has settled into the “wise older guy/father figure” role very well. The next man to fill the role after Mr. Caine will have trouble shaking the dignified and meaty role that Michael Caine has carved from Alfred. Not Camp. not “Fussy School Marm”, just a Man’s Man who happens to be a butler.
Rachel Dawes
Maggie Gyllenhall; gah. I think I just don’t like her as an actor. Sure, she is more of a character than Katie Holmes carried in “Batman Begins” but only because she pouts and acts more upset with Bruce Wayne than in the former. I jsut don’t buy her as a lawyer, she seems far to passive to be a real lawyer, especially as an Assistant DA. Speaking of that; why isn’t Rachel the DA? She has Bruce Wayne backing her for gosh’s sake. That is kind of emblematic of the uneven writing that makes Rachel so poor; she motivates two big characters but isn’t self-motivating. She just reacts and her biggest moment comes. <spoiler>post-mortem</spoiler> which kind of sucks for the actress. She scores her points by looking alternatively annoyed, scared or sad.
Harvey Dent/Two-Face
Aaron Eckhart; Harvey Dent. What can be said about the blonde-haird blue-eyed Harvey Dent that wasn’t repeated over and over again in the press about him all over Gotham? Gotham’s white knight! The guys on the force had another name for him: “Two Face”. The only thing is that they don’t establish WHY they called him Two Face; only that he was called it behind his back. If I remember correctly; in some far-off corner of my mind there was a portrayal of Harvey that showed him being bad-ass in private; thus showing the schism in his personality up front. Aaron tries to demonstrate this schism on screen, in a hoarse scream that appears as if by magic at points; but I don’t think his performance was strong enough. It was good; but not great.
The Joker / The Batman
I give Christian Bale and Heath Ledger equal billing here. They are as much the same character as the source material allows. In the comics; other heroes will often decry that Batman will always go over the edge and too far when solving the world’s problems. The opposite is true; of course, The Batman doesn’t ever go too far; he is always prepared and has planned this out. The same is true for the Joker; who WANTS to be caught and stopped by The Batman. The Batman and The Joker occupy the same space; with both seeking to make the world see things and do things their way. The Joker might be doing it for the Lulz, but it’s still the same psychology that drives them. “The Dark Knight” does a great deal to illustrate that neither the Joker nor The Batman gamble and both seem to have all the angles covered. The conflict that ensues is epic; if not exhausting. The yawning physical gulf between the two characters (demonstrated through sweeping helicopter shots showing each character’s approach to looking over the city) is also lost when you can see how close the two man are to each other. They are shadowy men with pasts that are known only to their intimates. It seems that the only thing that keeps The Batman from being The Joker are those around him. All of this is beautifully portrayed by both actors; with Bale continuing to play his “Patrick Bateman” Bruce Wayne to great effect. Heath Ledger pulls in a performance of the Joker that reaches new highs that I don’t imagine would be easily eclipsed.
Yeah, that was tasteless.
I’m actually fairly bummed about “The Dark Knight,” It was WAY too good. Far too good. If it had been less of a film; the craft of it less so. I could have walked away and just said, “Another Batman flick, good stuff!” maybe swanned on about the effects and the characters. Aaron Eckhart was great as Harvey Dent, The Ken Doll DA of Gotham; his fate sealed on film. Christian Bale flexed and burned on film, with a clean line between “Bruce” and “The Bat” Maggie Gyllenhaal did her best to make want her to die on film. And Heath Ledger? You mean, THE JOKER? Well, Heath has pretty much defined the film version of the Joker. It will take a RADICAL re-imagining to take the Joker to anything higher than the bar set in this film.
However, I have strayed from my point.
The film was too good. So it was tragic.
Alas, that is the essense of REAL Art, isn’t it. Art is fleeting and all else is commerce. Now we get a “Joker” on film who really lives up to the Joker from “The Killing Joke” a moralist with no consience or heart.
All for just 152 minutes. Those last 152 min are the best.
If you’ve been under a rock and you’re not a member of the Extended Troll or Fairy family then you’ve been at least periferally aware that they made a movie where the Son of the Devil is the hero; and it doesn’t feature one song by Dio OR Slayer. Q’uell Suprise!
Yup, your faithfull blogger has been to see a movie in an actual theatre with real people and a screen and everything. A Chain theatre. Let me go off on a tangent for a moment to fill you with the type of terror I was filled with when I sat in said Chain Theatre. The SCREEN WAS NOT FILLED WITH PICTURES WHEN WE ARRIVED!!!! DUMM DUMM DUMM DUMMM! The screen was about 7/8 filled with the ads and previews. That’s it. AND IT WAS BLURRY!!!! WOOOOOOooooooo! Scary stuff, huh? At Nine Buck a pop it was. I was so worked up about it that if the screen had not become filled with sharp previews a full 10 minutes after we had arrived, I would have become PERTURBED! Please consider this tangent complete, save this one point. The “Dark Knight” line was empty. There are enough nerds in London to justify two comic stores in walking distance from each other downtown, and they are neither of them failing, one had to move to a bigger location recently. In a town that can support two busy comic stores SO CLOSE THAT THEY COULD TOUCH WEINERS, there should have been a line for The Dark Knight. I think that says more about the Theater than the town.
Anyway, the Son of Satan is back with another hit and now he is not tethered by David Hyde Pierce! We get all the Abe Sapien goodness with some heavy Hellboy asskicking; while Selma Blair pouts, looks cute but mixes it up as much as a woman in her condition should. Now at this point you are saying to yourself, why is Kevin getting down on the Crazy? Crazy heroes are the best! I mean, Ambush Bug, the Creeper, CandleJack the list goes on and on. But hold on, I’m not getting down on the Crazy. I love the Crazy and it’s twin the Zany. They are not at issue. I’m just saying that the action is great, the fights are awesome and even the wire-fu is weighty and meaty instead of fairy light and tepid.
Speaking of the Wire Fu. Why does the clearly “European” Elf even know that particular type of wire-fu. I could have accepted Savate or some kind of acrobatic fencing, but Kung-Fuy with a halbred? C’Mon. Not that the fighting was bad, but I half expected him to yell KeeeeyAAAAAA! Go Elf Prince and so on.
As for the Drama, the relationships on screen were great, there’s a great “guy” moment between Hellboy and Abe that has to be seen to be understood and Seth Mcfarlane does himself proud as the character with all the substance of a really good beer fart.
So, Yeah. You should go see HellBoy 2; it’s GREAT. Better than the first one by MILES!
I looked over the accounts of the arrest and found this article at the Globe and Mail
Barenaked Ladies singer facing drug charges in New York state
Captain Bill Bleyle of the Manlius Police Department said yesterday that Mr. Page was arrested Friday along with two women in Fayetteville, N.Y., after officers observed a “suspicious” vehicle parked outside an apartment just after 2 a.m. When the two officers investigated, they found Mr. Page and Stephanie Ford of Fayetteville seated at the kitchen table, Capt. Bleyle said.
“Things seemed out of sorts,” the officer said. “And [police] determined that on the table they had what appeared to be powdered cocaine,” a fact, the police said, they later confirmed with a field test.
Note the lack of details about knocking on the door, making themselves known? No notes about, “an obviously innebriated or under the influence person answering the door” anywhere in the account. It’s almost like the police decided to just wander into his house to look for drugs on the basis that there was a shady looking car outside. Man, I’m sorry if my car is shady looking officer, but doesn’t give you the right to just wander in. This HAS to fail to meet the reasonable suspicion requirement of the 4th, right?
Then the following paragraph appears in the article:
Mr. Page, who has previously battled depression, has also been involved with several political movements, perhaps most notably as a vocal supporter of the federal New Democratic Party and as a board member of World Wildlife Fund Canada. In 2005, the Barenaked Ladies also wrote the musical score for the Stratford Festival production of As You Like It.
I can’t decide if the writer is trying to draw a line between supporting the NDP and doing Cocaine. It seems like they are, but maybe they are saying that there is a connection between hard drugs and Shakespeare?
Here is a slightly different account:
Bleyle said the arrest occurred at about 2 a.m. Friday after patrolling police noticed a suspicious car with its driver’s side door left open and found a man and woman in a nearby apartment with a white capsule in front of them. Bleyle said the pair were later found to be in possession of cocaine.
Again it’s the National Post that fills in the details that make the whole thing less shady (in terms of what the Police did):
“As [the officers] approached the apartment they saw people in the window sitting at a table and it looked like they were engaged in something. There was a white capsule and a white powdery substance that later tested positive for cocaine.” said Capt. Bill Bleyle with the Manlius Police Department in New York State.
See? Details that clarify WHY it was suspicious and a legitimate reason for them to enter the apartment, they observed possible criminal behavior through the window. It SEEMS legit, based upon this account.
Well, Mr. Page. The Ball is in your court, if you were snorting the Marching Powder, I’d plead out and do some time in Rehab if I were you. If you weren’t or the account by the police is false, fight it ’till your last eight-ball.
“Coming from ‘Saturday Night Live’ and doing stand-up, I’ve always done multiple characters,” he tells Thea. “I’ve always mixed it up at the movies; it’s kind of what I do.”
“I really like it when you don’t know who it is,” he beams. “Like if I do something and you watch the movie, and afterwards you’re like, ‘Hey, you know that old lady was him’ — and they’re like, ‘What?!!!'”
Eddie says the new movie, also starring Gabrielle Union and Elizabeth Banks, is very “sweet and funny” and kid-friendly.
–Eddie Murphy: Inside the head of ‘Meet Dave’
That last quote contains the death knell that tolled for Eddie Murphy “Kid-friendly” now, that death-knell sounded out its dull “Bong” years ago. It was heard right in the middle of “Doctor Dolittle 2” for me, it may have been around the time “Beverly Hills Cop 3” came out I’m not sure. Yes, “Pluto Nash” was crap on film. Let me say that again, “Pluto Nash” was so bad it might have actually killed Randy Quaids career altogether. That movie was a horrible pox on the movie industry. “Norbit” was better than “Pluto Nash” do you know why? Eddie Murphy could curse in it.
I can sum up what makes Eddie Murphy funny by quoting Eddie Murphy in “The Absent Minded Professor”: “Shit Locks!”
The whole Dave Chappelle sequence was AWESOME! Larry miller coming down on him in outrageous terms was great!
Eddie Murphy is failing the exact opposite reason Mike Myers if failing. Mike Myers is being bounced because he is still falling back on his punny, schticky humor and Eddie Murphy is failing because he stopped being filthy and started being startlingly kid focused. Even “Norbit” was all about kids, in a way.
In a word of advice to Mr. Murphy, no one under the age of 30 really remebers “Raw” or “Delirious”. If you don’t get out there and remind us of the filthy but genius Eddie Murphy we loved, you are going to be box office poison from now on.
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/14/amazing-videos-shot.html
Escape from Kyle Shields on Vimeo.
You have to check out the video made with the Canon Hv30, amazing!
Complaint #211
“Finish this list for me, Dan Brown: Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code, and _______. Don’t think your fans have forgotten that you owe us a third book. We’re waiting.â€
-Whine by Toby Glenn
You can almost hear the prissy voice behind this one saying “get to work MISTER BROWN, I don’t have enough religious intrigue in my life right now!”
Former disgruntled Alter Server?
Seminary student gone bad?
Middle aged and bored with all the high-end prose on the Oprah book club list?
We may never know.
I make Love to them
Published by NiteMayr on July 22, 2008I make Love to them, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.
You know, when I think about it more “Wanted” the movie fell pretty far short of the bar set by “Wanted” the comic. Here you have a series of panels that illustrate this fact fairly succinctly.
Mr. Rictus (The Joker) is the main villain, he’s crazier than two syphilitic mimes from the middle ages. He is tired of the status quo and is leaving a meeting of the 5 most malevolent beings on earth when he is confronted by Wesley Gibson, who’s Nom de guerre is “The Killer”
They are Super Villains.
SUPER
VILLAINS
The Hero of the Comic Murders cops and commits innumerable crimes. It is vile and inhuman, and immeasurably entertaining. The Bad Guys DO win in the end; it’s all a matter of which bad guys.